2i6 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



been the result, and that on the sands at Boulogne the 

 brother of the unfortunate lady shot the officer, who died 

 on the spot. These romances of the road are no more. 

 An elopement by the Tvletropolitan Railway line has 

 not much glamour about it. 



Nowadays one of the prettiest sights of the London 

 season are the parades of the " Coaching " and '' Four-in- 

 hand " Clubs ; but with all their beauty they cannot com- 

 pare with the old May-Day processions of the mail coaches 

 to St. Martin's-le- Grand. It was my good fortune as a 

 boy to accompany m^y father, as the guest of Mr. Fagg of 

 Bedfont, the proprietor of the coaches on one of the 

 Western routes, to the yearly banquet given in 1832 by 

 the contractor for his Majesty's mails at his establish- 

 ment in Millbank. This was the ^z/^";'^/^/ for the building 

 of the coaches, the harness-making, and all the requisites 

 for the equipment of the mails. There, were assembled 

 all the London coach proprietors, the Chaplins and 

 Horns, the Sherborns, the Nelsons, the Hearnes, the 

 Faggs, et id genus oinne, men who had each from 600 to 

 1000 horses at work, who prided themselves on the fact 

 that nowhere in the world were to be found such horses, 

 such coaches, such drivers, or such guards — shoulder to 

 shoulder with many of the elite of London's sportsmen 

 and "Knights of the Ribbons," the fathers and grand- 

 sires of the Four-in-hand men of the present day. 



After the luncheon the company adjourned to the 

 Embankment, where the mails fully equipped were on 

 view. Tlie coaches and harness were either new or newly 

 painted and furbished, the horses in pink of condition 

 and beauty, the coachmen and guards in new liveries of 



